The Hawks entered the week at 6-13 with three games on the schedule, a Class B clash at the Rochester Royals, an exhibition game against the Minneapolis Cobras on Friday. The final game of the week was the most important game of the season. Hastings, Cannon Falls and Red Wing are vying for the number one seed for the Region 5C tournament and first place in the Classic Cannon Valley League for Class C and Red Wing was the final hurdle for Hastings.
The trip to Rochester to take on the Class B Royals did not go the way of Hastings. The Hawks fell 9-6. No other stats were available for this game.
Weather has not been a friend to many of the amateur baseball teams in the state, forcing the hands of many teams to cancel non-league games to free up not only dates, but also players to participate in those league games. The Hawks have had to cancel one non-league game to fit in a league game and several of the Hawks opponents had to do the same, forcing manager Shawn Matson to scramble to find opponents to keep guys active and tuned up for the important league games.
The game against the Minneapolis Cobras was a last minute find for Hastings and it was a fun game. The Cobras are continually one of the better teams in the state and they gave the Hawks a good test.
Hastings took the early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Jason Greeder hit a single to right and stole second to get into scoring position and a single by Jordan Jeske moved Greeder to third. Mitch Iliff reached on a fielder’s choice scoring Greeder and a hard hit double by Blake Warner drove in Iliff for the Hawks first two runs of the game. The Cobras tied the game at two in the top of the second.
Hastings regained the lead in the third. The scoring was again kicked off by a single from Greeder. Iliff singled and another double from Warner scored Greeder. Noah Paulseth was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Drew Jenkins hit a hard fly ball to center scoring Iliff. Evan Krhin doubled to left scoring Warner and the Hawks were back on top 5-2.
Minneapolis slithered their way back into a tie scoring one in the top of the fourth and two in the top of the fifth to bring the score to 5-5. Hastings scored their final run of the game in the bottom of the fifth when Iliff crushed a triple off the left field fence to lead off. A single by Warner completed his three RBI day and the Hawks were again on top, 6-5.
The Cobras once again tied the game in the next inning, and they took the lead for good scoring three in the top of the seventh.
In the loss, three Hastings pitchers, Brenden Kruger, Pat Rough and Dennis Reinhart combined for 167 pitches. Kruger struck out two, walked one and allowed one earned run in three innings pitched. Rough also struck out two but allowed seven earned runs while walking three.
Offensively, four Hawks had five plate appearances, Greeder went 3-for-4 with three singles, two runs scored and a hit by pitch. Warner was 3-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and three RBIs. Jeske and Iliff went 2-for-5 with Iliff scoring three times and logging one RBI.
The tune-up game against a top tier Class B team was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Hawks with the Class C League Championship on the line just two days later.
With two classes statewide, Class B and Class C, and the arrangement of the two classes in their individual leagues, things can get a little weird regarding the playoffs. Hastings and Red Wing have both already played their two games against Cannon Falls. Red Wing won both games and Hastings split with the Bears.
With Cannon Falls at 1-3 in the CCVL-C standings and Red Wing at 2-0, Hastings needed to, at a minimum, split the two-game series with Red Wing to place second in the league and earn the third seed in the regional playoffs.
The Hawks, Aces and Bears are part of Region 5C with ten teams from the Twin Rivers League. The Region 5C playoffs start with an 8-team preliminary bracket. The bottom two Twin Rivers teams play each other for the eighth seed in the prelims which then have seven Twin Rivers teams and the last place CCVL team. The preliminary bracket then sends four teams to the finals bracket to take on the top two teams from both the CCVL and Twin Rivers.
Red Wing has kept the Hawks grounded for quite some time, but this year seemed different heading into Sunday’s matchup.
The Aces jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. A leadoff single by Brodie Smith did not seem to bother the Hawks as they logged two quick outs. The third out looked to be a done deal when longtime Ace Dixon Irwin hit a grounder to Ben Teigland at third. The normally sure handed Teigland made an errant throw and all of a sudden, the Aces not only scored a run, but had another runner in scoring position.
The next at bat, the Ace’s Reese Trip hit a blooper to right that landed in front of Mitch Iliff. Iliff was close to the ball when it landed and that kept Irwin at third initially as it looked like Iliff made a great scoop. The scoop ended up not happening and as soon as Irwin and Trip realized that Iliff missed the ball, they each advanced a base and Red Wing was now up 2-0. Adam Thygesen scored Trip from second with a single and then Hastings finally logged the third out to end the inning.
Hastings has been playing fairly clean baseball this season with limited errors throughout. Errors and other free bases had been the bane of the Hawks existence for several past seasons and fans quickly began to worry with the “oh no, here we go again” thought process.
“The dugout was really composed,” Blake Warner said after the game when asked about the early 3-0 deficit. “It was 0-0 to us, we knew we were going to hit, we knew we were going to comeback. We have been swinging the bats really well the last couple of games. It did not really bother us or really matter to us. We were going to do what we were going to do anyways.”
And that is exactly what they did. They chipped away at the Aces 3-0 lead scoring one in the fourth when Cory Wolters hit a single to deep left center scoring Ben Teigland from second. They tied it with two more in the fifth, Mitch Iliff and Jackson Schaffer each scored on singles by Warner and Noah Paulseth.
Hastings took the lead in the seventh which started with a Schaffer single, and Warner crushed another shot to deep center for a double to score Schaffer from first. Ben Teigland showed some power with a one hop to the left center fence for a double scoring Warner to give Hastings the lead 5-3.
Jordan Jeske pitched lights out showing why he has been the Hawks ace the last few years. Jeske pitched eight innings total and completely shut down the aces in seven of those innings striking out five, walking none and allowing six total hits, four of which came in the three run first inning.
He was pitching so well, there was a deep conversation that took place in the press box heading into the ninth as to whether or not he should go out to finish the game with the Hawks 5-3 lead or let a reliever take over to get the save.
“That was an easy decision,” said Manager Shawn Matson. “I asked him what he wanted to do, and he hesitated, so I sent Denny in to close the game.”
Jeske did not fault the skipper for the change.
“I felt great the whole game, but it is hot out and I was at 100 pitches,” said Jeske. “I was getting tired, and the arm was starting to get tight. I did not have to pull out the tiger balm, but it was getting there.”
Dennis Reinhart took over to start the ninth and Trip took the first Reinhart pitch and drove it to third for an easy 5-3 ground out. Then things did not go so well for Reinhart. He walked the next batter on five pitches and the following batter on four pitches. A single by Evan Petersmeyer cut the Hawks lead to one with only one out. Then Redwing made a costly mistake.
With runners on first and third, the Aces tried a double steal and they messed it up horribly. Reinhart delivered a strike to Paulseth who instantly popped up and threw down to second. The runner slid into Jason Greeder at second who then dropped the ball. That was when the runner at third hesitated and took off for home far too late. Hawks newcomer, Drew Jenkins, saw the dropped ball and was in the perfect backup position for the throw to second and he was on the ball before the runner completed his first step toward home. By the time the ball was back in Paulseth’s glove at the plate, the runner had not even begun to slide. He was out by the proverbial mile and the Aces were down to their last out.
Reinhart walked another Aces batter and Matson knew he needed to make another change. Ben Teigland took over for Reinhart with a 2-0 count already in place. Three quick pitches, strikes one, two and three and the game was over, Hastings won 5-4.
With the win, Hastings is temporarily in first place in the CCVL at 2-1 with the head-to-head tie breaker over Red Wing who is also 2-1. Wednesday, July 17, that first place position will be challenged when the Hawks travel to Red Wing for a 7:30 p.m. start time. It is expected that the Hawks will face the Aces’ ace, Aaron Johnson and Hastings will likely start this season’s top Hawk pitcher, the crafty Ben Teigland.
Wednesday’s game is sure to be the biggest game of the season so far and it is the final league game for Hastings before the playoffs start in August. Hastings does have one final home game on the schedule, and they are hoping to add more. As of press time, the next home game is scheduled for Rivertown Days Friday. The Hastings Hurricanes will take on the East Metro Mammoth at 5:30 p.m. and the Hawks will follow taking on the Lyons Pub Warriors around 8:00 p.m.